​It may not have the same pull as American football, but Soccer Fever swept through Twitter and other social networks Thursday as fans rallied behind Team USA during their crucial match against Germany.

The Yanks didn’t manage to pull off a win—Germany won the game 1-0— but Team USA is still advancing to the knockout round of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil thanks to FIFA’s complicated tournament rules.

(For those of you who are confused… take a slight pause and let CNN explain here:)

Team USA kicked off the social media frenzy Wednesday night with a bit of marketing savvy when U.S. Soccer tweeted out an excused absence note that employees could show their boss if they wanted to ditch work to watch the game. The note was signed by head coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

And then pretty much everyone from President Obama, to the Chicago Skyline, to Hulk Hogan, to Will Ferrell got into the action.

Lest there be any doubt about the current popularity of soccer in America, ESPN also reported late Thursday that their live stream of the USA-Germany match crashed under the weight of “unprecedented demand.” At its height, 1.4 million people were watching the match online (presumably those who didn’t have the guts to show their boss that note from Coach Klinsmann). Univision, however, stayed online the entire time, with about 750,000 people tuning in to their live stream.

Read More: Variety

Brief Take: Combine the World Cup live stream crash with the Oscars streaming outage earlier this year and it looks like the age of live online viewing of big events may have finally arrived.

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